Puppy

We got a puppy last Friday, so have been busy looking after him for the last week and haven't played much chess. I'm looking forward to the Spondon Summer championship, a long game each week for about 8 weeks against good opposition should improve my game. There are no local long game congresses or tournaments coming up soon so will have to stick with Internet chess and tuesday nights at the chess club. There are a few rapid play events, but have decided to give them a miss as I don't think they really contribute to my improvement at this stage, I need longer to analyse properly.

I've been practising tactics quite regularly, mainly with 'Chess Tactics for Beginners' software which I've found useful and at a good level for me. I've read the basic chapters of Silmans endgame book, and am playing through a few Chernev 'move-by-move' games.

I'll obviously carry on reading and practicing tactics, but I think it's just as important to play lots of long time-control games to put it into practice, and at least analyse the basic mistakes afterwards with Fritz.